How Easy is it to Learn a Controlled Natural Language for Building a Knowledge Base?

Abstract: Recent developments in controlled natural language editors for knowledge engineering (KE) have given rise to expectations that they will make KE tasks more accessible and perhaps even enable non-engineers to build knowledge bases. This exploratory research focussed on novices and experts in knowledge engineering during their attempts to learn a controlled natural language (CNL) known as OWL Simplified English and use it to build a small knowledge base. Participants' behaviours during the task were observed through eye-tracking and screen recordings. This was an attempt at a more ambitious user study than in previous research because we used a naturally occurring text as the source of domain knowledge, and left them without guidance on which information to select, or how to encode it. We have identified a number of skills (competencies) required for this difficult task and key problems that authors face.